Hapgood raised his musket and fired, just as the implacable pursuer abandoned the chase, and turned his steps back to the rebel line. He staggered for a few paces more, and fell just as a dozen other muskets were leveled at him. He appeared to have been hit in the leg; for he did not fall flat upon the ground, as he would if he had been struck in a vital part, but sank down to a sitting posture. The Union men rushed up to him, and found that the supposition was correct; the ball had passed through the fleshy part of his thigh, disabling, but not dangerously wounding him. The ruffian--we do not call him so because he was a rebel, but he was naturally and by education just what the term indicates--was as savage and implacable as before. "Better leave me where I am, Yanks," said he; "'case, if I get well, I shall be the death of some of you. You kin shoot me through the head if you like." "Don't consarn yourself about us, reb," replied Hapgood. "We'll take good care that you don't hurt yourself, or any one else, while you are in our hands." "Mebbe you will, Yanks; but, just as sure as you was born, I'll hev the heart's blood of that younker as fotched Tom Myers down." "Who's Tom Myers?" demanded the veteran. "The man that you Yanks killed this forenoon." "Whose heart's blood do you want?" "That younker with the badge on his shoulder; the un I chased in." "He didn't kill Tom Myers, or any other man." "Show me the man, then," growled the rebel, now beginning to feel the pain of his wound. "I'm your man. I brought Tom Myers down," replied Hapgood, anxious to remove any cause of peril from his _protege_. "Did yer?" "Sartin I did; saw him drop when I fired." "Then, stranger, yer kin make up yer mind to die like a hog within ten days. I tell yer, Yank, there ain't bolts and bars enough in Yankee land to keep me away from yer. You kin shoot me if yer like now, and that's all the way yer kin save yerself." "Well, reb, you are great at blowing; but I've seen a good many jest sich fellers as you be. I've fit with 'em, and fit agin' 'em; and I tell you, your uncle can take keer of just as many of you as can stand up between here and sundown. Put that in your hopper, reb; and the sooner you dry up, the sooner you'll come to your milk. We'll take keer on you like a Christian, though you ain't nothin' but a heathen. Here, boys, make a stretcher, and kerry him along. Take that jack-knife out of his hand fust, and keep one eye on him all the time." Having thus delivered himself, Sergeant Hapgood hastened to the spot where Somers had seated himself on the ground to recover his wind and rest his weary limbs. The terrible excitement of the last hour seemed to fatigue him more than the previous labors of the whole day; and he was hardly in condition to march to the division headquarters, where he was to report the success of his mission.